LAUSR

The aim of this paper is to analyse the difficulties that industry in general and agri-food firms in particular have when it comes to innovating. The focus of this analysis is temporal and it covers the periods 2004, 2008 and 2012. This allows assessing whether these difficulties have intensified, declined or remained stable. To this end, we have applied correspondence analysis, multivariate technique similar to principal components analysis designed to explore relationships among categorical variables. We have used the PITEC database, the Spanish component of the Community Innovation Survey from Eurostat. The results are differentiated according to ownership of the company. Finally, the results obtained for the industry in general and agri-food companies are compared. In both cases, the innovation has been affected by the economic crisis, but agri-food companies have performed better than other sectors, although the significance of the economic and financial obstacles depends on the characteristics of the company, its ownership and origin of capital.